Junior basketball competitions in Melbourne

Why there is more than one

Basketball in Victoria grew from the ground up, association by association, rather than being designed from the top down. So instead of one metro junior league there are several, each with its own clubs, rules and season dates.

That is why two families in neighbouring suburbs can have completely different experiences of junior basketball, and why advice from one parent often does not apply to another.

How a competition differs from an association

An association runs basketball in an area. A competition is the league that teams actually play in, and it can span several associations.

The Greater Eastern Basketball Conference, for example, takes in teams from more than one association. So your child can be a member of one association and still play against clubs from another.

The competitions we have covered

• VJBL. Divisions, VC, VJL1 and VJL2
• EDJBA. Melbourne's biggest junior competition
• NJBL. The Northern Junior Basketball League
• CBL. The Community Basketball League, explained
• GEBC. The Greater Eastern Basketball Conference
• The Big V. Victoria's state league, and Youth League
• NBL1 South. The tier between Big V and the NBL
• Junior Country Championships. Country rep basketball, explained
• Hoop Time. The primary schools carnival
• Ford Aussie Hoops. The starting point for ages five to ten
• Competitions compared. Age, commitment and travel, side by side

This list grows as we write them up. If a competition you are in is missing, email admin@liddicoatbasketball.com.au.

What actually differs between them

They are not the same competition with different names. Before you assume last season's habits carry over, these are the things that genuinely change.

• Whether zone defence is allowed. The EDJBA bans it. Not every competition does.
• The age brackets. Some run odd numbers like U11 and U13, others run U10 and U12.
• The day of the week. Most are weekend, but some split age groups across weeknights.
• Ball size by age group, which not every competition publishes.
• How many grades run, which decides whether a mismatched team can be moved.
• Whether a mercy rule applies to stop blowouts running up.

Which one will my child be in?

You do not choose a competition directly. You join a club, and the club enters its teams into whichever competition it belongs to.

So the practical question is which club is near you and has room in your child's age group. The competition follows from that. If it matters to you, ask the club which competition they play in before you sign up, because a few clubs sit in more than one.